Author Archives: fakedtales

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About fakedtales

I'm a writer, a podcaster, a reviewer of games. Here's where I share my own fiction and my encounters with other people's media.

RPG a Day 2020, Part Twenty-Five – Chaos Engines: Pulling Levers and Pushing Buttons

Posted on August 25, 2020 by fakedtales

There are a lot of assumed player types; your rules lawyers, your munchkins. A lot of these have changed or been reframed over the years. A rules lawyer can actually be great if you turn them into your rules caddy. … Continue reading →

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Twenty-Four – The Tricky Art of Humour in RPGs

Posted on August 24, 2020 by fakedtales

I listen to the System Mastery podcast and they covered an RPG I’ve owned for years but never actually played. The Land of Og. It brought back all the memories of picking it up at GenCon UK, reading it and … Continue reading →

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Twenty-Three – Edgelord, my first Masks villain

Posted on August 23, 2020 by fakedtales

For a little treat, let’s look at a villain for Masks. Edgelord was the first villain I ran in Masks. Masks is possibly my favourite superhero RPG and I’ve run a lot of them. It’s about young superheroes who haven’t … Continue reading →

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Twenty-Two – Getting Burnt Rare in RPGs

Posted on August 22, 2020 by fakedtales

I know this is a bit of a stretch, but I’m going with it. Fire’s a fun thing in an RPG. At least, in some RPGs it’s fun. I have an index card which was used in Fate Core. It … Continue reading →

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Twenty-One – Push Your Luck with Stress in Alien

Posted on August 21, 2020 by fakedtales

I was originally thinking about writing yet more praise of Trophy and the addictive ‘push your luck’ mechanics found there. I’m going to stick with pushing your luck but I want to talk about a different system I’ve not written … Continue reading →

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Twenty – Different Methods of Investigation in Games

Posted on August 20, 2020 by fakedtales

I like a good mystery and back when I was first roleplaying Call of Cthulhu was my game of choice. It combined investigations with horror. The problem was that in a lot of the writing things could end up gated … Continue reading →

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Nineteen – My Custom Dread Tower

Posted on August 19, 2020 by fakedtales

Let’s do it, let’s talk about Dread. It feels inevitable with the “Tower” theme. Dread’s an early story game, relative to where we’re at these days with so many fantastic story games out there. The book is, as admitted by … Continue reading →

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Eighteen – Meeting Roleplayers in the Wild

Posted on August 18, 2020 by fakedtales

It’s not happened a ton, but it’s happened more than you’d think. Certainly more than I thought likely. Meeting someone who seems normal and like other people, but then you find out they’re a fellow roleplayer. It’s great, kind of … Continue reading →

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Seventeen – Some Cosy Games

Posted on August 17, 2020 by fakedtales

Today’s theme is “Comfort” so I thought it’d be good topic to have a look at some slightly more cosy games. I like the idea of RPGs with some slightly calmer concepts, especially in this year of our Hellworld 2020. … Continue reading →

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RPG a Day 2020, Part Sixteen – Dramatic Battles and Managing Epic Scale

Posted on August 16, 2020 by fakedtales

We all like a big fight, don’t we? Those bits in things like Game of Thrones where we’d have a lot of drama and tension, then a massive cathartic battle and the fallout. Or in Lord of the Rings, or … Continue reading →

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